1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for baking dough, more particularly to those capable of adjusting the texture of dough.
2. Description of related art
The consumption of bread in Japan has recently increased without distinction of age or sex, and demand for bread has also increased.
Meanwhile, there has been a large demand for diversification of products in the field of foodstuffs, and the quality of bread has improved.
Particularly, dough is considered as a first point or first step of the baking process, and the quality thereof in terms of fragrance, color, resistance to the teeth, palate, etc. delicately influences mouth feeling or sensations experienced during eating.
Meanwhile, mouth feeling largely depends on the texture of dough which is a microscopic structure of dough. This is caused by the fact that the resistance to the teeth when eating bread depends on the structure of the texture of dough. It is a knowledge in the field of art that the texture of dough is slightly varied owing to the difference of mixture of ingredients. The difference of mixture of ingredients includes the difference of ratio of ingredients and the difference of raw materials or ingredients per se (hereinafter referred to simply as mixture of ingredients). It is possible to adjust the texture of dough positively utilizing the difference of mixture of ingredients.
However, there is a limit to vary the texture of dough depending on the mixture of ingredients, which causes changes in taste, and hence this is not necessarily an appropriate method.
Accordingly, it is very useful that if the texture of dough can be intentionally adjusted on the production line for baking bread without resorting to the mixture of ingredients of dough, but it has not been developed so far. The present invention has been created under such a background.